Crawl
by RedMagic
Summary: One Tree Hill/Gossip Girl Crossover. Pairings are Brooke/Nate and Haley/Chuck.  A high school shooting, a sacrafice and the aftermath of a tragedy they may never recover from.
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note -Hey everyone, it's me starting a new story. My laptop is in the early stages of being fixed after crashing so until I can get it back up and running my other stories have been put on hold.

Anyway I hope you enjoy this, I'm getting ready to post up a preview vid so if you want to head on over to my youtube account sometime in the near future it will be up.

Each Chapter will be from a different characters POV, the only characters to really feature are Brooke, Haley, Nate and Chuck.

Deals with mature themes (eg. School shootings, miscarriage just to name two).

* * *

**Prologue: Brooke**

_This is a story about loss, about life and about pain. It's a story about love, family and friends and the sacrifices a person will make for the people they hold dear._

_But mostly this is a story about sisters and a bond that cannot be broken no matter what gets thrown its way._

**XXX**

Shot's ring through the halls of Tree Hill High School and utter chaos erupts, people racing for exits, scattering and hurrying away from the boy with the gun and the sad look in his eyes.

Brooke Davis falls and is a second away from being trampled by the crowds when someone grabs her up on their way past and starts hurtling towards the exit, her in tow, but as they reach outside and the helpful stranger lets her go she realises something so terrifying that it causes a chill to run down her spine.

She has no idea where her boyfriend is, but worst of all her sister Haley is still trapped inside.

They'd always been close from the moment they'd been born, actually technically speaking even before that and Brooke had always found it comforting that the person she was closest to in the world, her soul mate just happened to have shared the same womb as her.

Their parents were never and are still never around much to have any impact on either of their lives and it had always been up to the two of them to guide each other through the world.

There wasn't anything they wouldn't do for each other, if Haley needed a shoulder to cry on, then Brooke would supply that shoulder, if someone got on the wrong side of Brooke, than Haley was the first one to give that person what they deserved.

That's why Brooke turns back toward the school, the need to save her sister racing through her veins only she's thwarted by a teacher who drags her kicking and screaming towards a school bus where the doors lock.

She can only stare helplessly out the window as the bus races away from the scene, her heart breaking into a million tiny pieces and only prayers to a God she's not even sure she believes in to protect her only family.

**XXX**

The bus drives to the schools off campus Basketball stadium, where it looks like hundreds of people are gathering around. There are news teams, shaken students and worried parents rushing around everywhere searching for their children.

She tries calling her own parents, but their cell phones are switched off and Brooke feels nothing but disgust and contempt at the fact that they're off somewhere overseas having fun while their daughters are stuck inside a living nightmare.

She'd tried Nate but she'd gotten no reply and she can only hope that if he's in the school he's somewhere watching out for her sister, the two of them were best friends and she knows they'll try their hardest to keep each other safe.

There's only one other person she can call, but it's a call she's been dreading to make since she'd been shoved onto that yellow bus back at the school. Chuck Bass was her sister's boyfriend and currently away on business in New York unaware of the tragic events taking place back in his hometown.

She takes a deep breath and summons up the courage, taking her phone out of her pocket and dialling his number.

**XXX**

She's standing outside, propped up against a pole after having cried until she'd ran out of tears when she spots Coach Whitey Durham making his way toward the building, no one in the stadium has heard anything from the school in a while and Brooke knows as soon as she sees the coach's face that the news he's bringing with him won't be good.

She knows all her hoping and praying has been for nothing when he stands in front of her a sombre expression on his face and a deeply sad look in his eye.


	2. Chapter 2

**Prologue Two: Haley**

_Those things which are precious are saved only by sacrifice_

_-David Kenyon_

Haley Davis liked to help people; the urge to put herself out there on behalf of someone else was deeply ingrained into the very core of her being.

It's why when the high school is thrown into a state of panic she is quick to usher people into the tutor centre and barricade the doors. Nate Archibald is among those people and perhaps a little selfishly she's glad he's there in the room with her even though her mind is fixating on another guy, miles and miles away.

Then like a tonne of bricks she's hit with the realization that Nate was alone when he came rushing in with the handful of people she'd managed to lead, and if Nate was alone it meant that Brooke could possibly be still out there.

He looks at her and she gets the distinct impression he's thinking the exact same thing she is – Please let Brooke be as far away from this school as she can be, please let her be safe.

**XXX**

They sit or rather perch on the cool linoleum floor of the tutor centre, hearts beating with nervous energy and hoping to ride out the storm of chaos surrounding the school.

Haley tries to block out the panicky chatter of the other people in the room, she clutches Nate's hand in a vice like grip and draws whatever strength he has to offer, the ten years of friendship between them a beacon of light for her to cling to.

She looks glances over each of the other occupants of the room, some she knows, she's talked to and hung out with, Rachel Gattina for example who she'd class as a friend because they run in the same social circles even though there are only three other people that Haley spends the bulk of her time with.

Then there are others who she only knows by name and face, the ones she hasn't really spent any time with, like Jimmy Edwards, the boy sitting in the corner of the room with the red sweater on looking more melancholy than scared.

**XXX**

Nate stands in front of her slightly trying to block her from Jimmy's view and her hand reaches up to rest against his chest trying to pull him as close to her side as humanly possible, she can't let anything happen to him and he can't let anything happen to her and it's hard to tell who exactly is trying to protect whom.

But she knows that Nate is the intended target of the boy in the red sweaters rage.

The boy at her side is her best friend, not to mention the love of her sister's life and she just couldn't stand back and do nothing while someone waved a gun in his face threatening his existence.

Jimmy shoots, she pushes Nate and everything goes black.


	3. Chapter 3

**Prologue - Nate**

Nate Archibald moved to Tree Hill at the tender age of six years old and met his best friends the very same day he moved into his brand new home.

They all lived on the same street, the Davis' the Bass' and then the Archibald's, right next door to each other, the Davis mansion right in the middle of his and Chuck's and from day one Haley and Brooke had been his constant companions.

He loved them both so much there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for them.

**X-X-X-X**

Sitting in the tutor centre, Haley close to his side he hopes to god Brooke is somewhere safe, because he can't bare the thought of her being out in those halls somewhere scared and alone.

There's a boy in the corner, and Nate doesn't like the look of him, doesn't like the way he's looking at him and Haley with what looks like something close to hate.

And he really doesn't like it when the boy stands up and points something shiny and metal in their direction.

**X-X-X-X**

They're on their feet and Haley's silently crying, clinging to him as if both their lives depend on it.

The boy, Haley said his name was Jimmy is hurling curse words and angry sentences in their direction, waving the gun in front of them, threatening to shoot.

If anything happened to Haley, Brooke would never recover and Nate doesn't want to lose his best friend and his girlfriend both in the same day so he tries to block Jimmy's view of the girl and stands slightly in front of her.

One second he's trying to save his best friends life and the next minute after he's been pushed to the ground Nate realises she's just saved his.

**X-X-X-X**

Shrieks of fear fill the tutor centre and Haley is lying in a pool of blood, eyes closed and the movement in her chest slowing. Nate presses his hands over the seeping red wound on her chest and prays for a miracle.

His best friend's blood is all over his hands and the monster who shot her looks down at her like he can't believe what he's seeing.

Nate is literally watching the life drain out of her before his very eyes and he looks up at the boy/monster with the gun and frantically starts to plead.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note**

To everyone who has reviewed, alerted and favorited, you are all rock stars and I adore you. Your continued support lets me know I'm doing something right so please keep it coming.

Last of the prologues, next update will be a proper length and as previously stated still written in the POV of one of our main four. There will however be a few chapters told from Victoria, Derek (the girl's dad…who you should be able to figure out who I've cast in the role) and Rachel's POV, Rachel plays a small but significant role in previous and upcoming events.

* * *

**Prologue: Chuck**

Chuck Bass' story should have been a simple one. Born the only son of the wealthiest man in Tree Hill, he'd been destined to follow the path of so many other spoilt to the core trust fund children before him.

But sometimes it turns out fate has other plans in store for people and sometimes life leads these individuals down different roads.

**X-X-X-X**

The first time he really notices Haley Davis she's six years old, which would seem creepy if it wasn't for the fact that he's only nine at the time.

She's wearing a blue sundress with a matching ribbon in her light brown hair and in his still innocent unclouded mind she reminds him of an angel.

Nine years later, when he doesn't think anything in his life will ever be pure again she becomes one when she saves him from himself.

**X-X-X-X**

He's eighteen years old, his father is dead and Chuck Bass has just become one of those terribly tragic characters from a Bronte novel.

He stands on a ledge of one of his father's buildings, cursing everything and everyone, so completely drunk and grief struck out of his mind that he actually contemplates ending it all.

Then he hears a soft voice, looks into gentle brown eyes and the world suddenly comes crashing into focus.

He kisses her for the first time the night his father is laid to rest in the cold, dank ground.

**X-X-X-X**

It takes him awhile to get back on track again, he's moody a lot of the time and sometimes he gets so frustrated with learning the mechanisms of his new life that he swings between wanting to rip everything to pieces and curling up into a ball and crying.

She's there for every tantrum and every tear, strong and loving by his side so that putting himself back together again gets a little less difficult every time.

**X-X-X-X**

He's twenty one years old and he has the kind of life most people twice his age can only dream of.

All it takes is one phone call and one sobbing girl on the line for it all to come spiralling down again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note:** Hi guys sorry for the delay. I've been without net for quite a while so it makes updating difficult. Enjoy the chapter and thank you for your patience. Also for readers of all my other OTH/GoGi crossovers I'm working on updates for all of them and should have them all updated with in a fortnight.

* * *

**Chapter One: Brooke**

She can smell death in the air all around her and the white sterile walls of the hospital waiting room feel like they're closing in around her ready to crush her into tiny pieces.

Brooke is more worried than she can ever remember being before and even though Nate is sitting right beside her, his hand clasping her own in a vice like grip she's sure is supposed to inspire strength and support, she has never felt more alone.

She felt like her whole world was somehow out of sync, like maybe she was stuck inside some realistic feeling nightmare and she was struggling to wake up.

Hours ago, watching from the sidelines as Doctors and Nurses rushed past her wheeling the gurney her sister was lying on lifelessly, had seemed so unreal to her that if it wasn't for the fact that she could physically feel Nate's body beside her own, she may have been inclined to think it was all some elaborate illusion.

Haley shot? It was too inconceivable for Brooke to even think. Her sister had never done anything in her eighteen years to deserve that.

She wasn't a bad person, she wasn't evil or cruel, she never picked on anyone or belittled them, and she was never hateful, so why was she being punished?

Shot by Jimmy Edwards; for what? Brooke knows for a fact Haley had always been nice to him, he'd been in the same Homeroom as them since their freshman year of High School and she can remember countless times where Haley would say good morning to him as she passed his desk or offer him a piece of gum or candy.

"Should we track down a nurse and see if there's any news?"

She shakes her head know to Nate's question, turning to take in his messy appearance, the white almost ghostly pallor of his complexion and the haunted glassy sheen in his blue eyes. There is blood all over his soft green sweater and a smear of it on his cheek.

She reaches up and wipes the smear off, the red smudge staining her thumb, her sister's precious blood now coloring her skin.

"They'll come out and tell us if there's any news," Brooke knows all too well how this part works, her brilliant yet absent father is a doctor, a doctor in the very hospital one of his daughters may be dying in "That's what they usually do, we just have to wait."

Her eyes wander over the other occupants of the waiting room taking in the ashen faces of people she has known or known of all her life, all waiting on news of the fate of a loved one.

Mayor Scott and his wife Karen stand over the other end of the room, separate from the rest of the people, both of their son's victims of Jimmy's spree.

The Scott brothers, Lucas and Nathan, both of them High School superstars, both of them spoilt and mean, rotten apples fallen from a very diseased tree. Lucas has been shot in the arm, Nathan in the leg.

Superficial wounds for two immensely superficial boys.

Brooke briefly dated Lucas at the start of her freshman year, before her and Nate got their acts together and became the couple they were supposed to be. Nathan had tried to get Haley drunk and alone at a party their sophomore year, but Chuck, Nate and Brooke had been able to get to her before any damage was done.

She really wishes one of them were lying in her sister's place.

"Brooke you need to eat something."

Nate is talking to her again, trying to take care of her and as much as she loves him for it, as much as she loves him she just really wishes he would shut the hell up and maybe give her a little space.

"I'm not hungry."

His hand disentangles from hers to stroke her hair and usually the action would calm her, soothe away her troubles and fill her with a warmth that only Nate can produce. She wishes she could find it comforting but at the moment not much is.

"You're shaking. I'll go get you a sandwich." His hand disappears from her hair and as he stands she feels the warmth of his body disappear as well. As he strides swiftly out of the room she thinks about calling him back and telling him her shakes have nothing to do with lack of food, but she needs a few minutes alone and she also kind of gets the feeling that Nate might too.

He'd been in the room, watched helplessly as that bullet ripped through Haley's flesh, he'd begged desperately for her life. She can't imagine how he must be feeling right now. She doesn't want to either.

"Can I sit here a minute?"

Brooke finds herself looking up into the eyes of a familiar redhead, Rachel Gattina. Not really a friend, not really an enemy, just one of those people who exists, sometimes in Brooke's world, sometimes not.

She nods her head, watches the redhead sit down, and notices the blood splatters on her clothes and the haunted look in the girl's eyes that is too much like Nate's. The girl breaks eye contact looking down at hands that are red raw from over scrubbing and Brooke is struck by the fact that Rachel looks nothing like her usual overly confident self.

And she knows, she knows that Rachel must have spent at least an hour trying to wash Haley's blood off of her hands.

This girl, Rachel was the reason Haley had made it to the hospital with what little life she had, this girl had stayed by her sister's side along with Nate and fought for her life. She'd pressed her hands firmly over the seeping wound in her sister's chest; she'd breathed life into her fading body.

This girl, Rachel, was a hero disguised as just another shallow high school beauty queen.

If Haley lived, Rachel would be part of the reason why and for that fact alone Brooke would always be grateful to her, would always remember her.

"Brooke…I…" The redhead swallows thickly like she's finding it difficult to talk and Brooke can see that the girl is having a hard time fighting back tears.

"Rachel" Brooke stands, her own tears flowing freely down her cheeks, her legs ready to run, ready to her escape yet staying firmly rooted to the spot "Thank you."

She says it for herself and for her parents, she says it for Nate, for Chuck who she knows must be frantically making his way home, but mostly she says it for Haley.

She says thank you for her sister just in case her sister doesn't get the chance to say it for herself.


	6. Interlude 1

**Hey guys. Not a proper chapter, just the first of Rachel's interludes since it seemed to fit here better. Working on updates for most of my stories at the moment so I should have updates out before christmas.****  
**

**Thank you so much for your patience and thank you for the reviews, alerts and PM's.**

* * *

**Interlude One: Rachel**

Rachel Gattina hasn't always been one of the popular people. In fact for the first fourteen years of her life she was anything but.

She was short and chubby and her nose was way too big for her face and when she asked Nathan Scott to go out with her freshman year he'd laughed at her and told her he'd never date her because she was the ugliest girl in the entire school.

She didn't have a single friend in the world and high school wasn't a happy place for her. Some people, like Brooke Davis and Nate Archibald treated her like she didn't exist, some, like Nathan Scott and his older brother Lucas were overly cruel and hurtful but only one had ever taken the time to be nice to her.

Haley Davis had treated her like she was a person, she'd treated her like she mattered and Rachel had never really forgotten that not even when she'd finally had enough of all the name calling and done something about it.

She'd lost the weight. Grew a few inches and had a little surgery to fix the quirks nature had bestowed upon her. When Rachel had turned up to school on her first day of sophomore year, she was ruling by lunch time and suddenly everybody wanted to know her.

She had the entire school at her feet and she could hang with any crowd she wanted, any that is apart from the one that she wanted to be hanging with the most.

The Davis Twins and Nate Archibald lived in a bubble no one could penetrate. They were a clique all on their own and no one, no one could ever join.

They were three of the most popular teens in the school if not the most popular, partly because they were so exclusively each other's and partly because of Haley, who was nice to everybody and who everybody wanted to know.

Rachel couldn't become one of them she knew that, but it didn't stop her from watching them and it didn't stop her wondering.

**X-X-X-X**

She hears rather than sees the minute Haley takes the bullet for Nate, no one moves to help her bar Nate and no one makes a sound either. Rachel remembers sunny smiles and soft hellos, tiny conversations and tissues being offered to the chubby outcast she was from the pretty popular Haley who was nice just for the sake of being nice.

She's on her knees beside the two best friends before she even registers she's taken a step.


End file.
